


A Third Path

by Davechicken



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-18 01:05:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11280525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Davechicken/pseuds/Davechicken
Summary: The one untaken. Post-ROTJ AU.





	A Third Path

Obi-Wan watches the twins playing together. They’re babbling in their nonsense words, though he knows the communication between them is augmented as much with the Force as it is with genetics. Little Leia is building a castle out of blocks, pointing at ones she wants, which Luke gets for her. She’s definitely going to be a leader one day, he can tell. Luke isn’t upset though, he lives to see other people’s smiles. When he has a new idea, Leia is mature enough to listen to it.

He never thought he’d be around toddlers, not really. When he’d been taken to train with the Jedi, he’d been a little older than these two, but it was a very specialist position within the Temple to rear younglings. Even Anakin (and it hurts to remember) had been much older, and also far too young for Obi-Wan to really make a difference. 

Or, is that hindsight? He doesn’t know how much of what happened is due to his own failings as a Master, down to the Council, down to the Sith, or… Anakin. It’s impossible to point to one single point of failure, when there were so many, over so long. His fondness for the boy had not helped, and here he is… repeating his mistakes with Anakin’s children.

Or trying _not_ to. 

Anakin had never been able to give up his attachments, and Obi-Wan had a hard time really believing he was wrong for it. Although the… end result was… anything but what he wanted, he couldn’t help but feel partially responsible. He’d taken him on as his Padawan, because he’d been too close to his own Master. And the Council had been against Anakin from the start. How must that have felt to a small child, who wanted nothing more than to escape slavery? They’d left his mother behind, because they ‘didn’t interfere’, but… you couldn’t just regulate someone’s heart. 

Obi-Wan wished he knew the answer, he truly did. Given his time over, would he have kept Anakin and Padme apart? Released Anakin from the Jedi? Freed Shmi? He doesn’t know. He just knows the love Padme had for Anakin had been pure, and he was personally responsible for the two lives he concealed from the galaxy.

And still conceals. Ana– _Darth Vader–_ could come looking, of course. His alibi as ‘Ben’ isn’t very well crafted, but inside the Organa household, surrounded by only people who Breha and Bail trust, he’s as safe as he can be. He shields himself and the children, and Anakin only thought Padme had _one_ child in her belly as they kept her pregnancy so secret. The two adopted children of Breha and Bail are therefore free from suspicion. As much as anyone ever is. 

He’d considered splitting the risk, taking the boy and hiding somewhere Anakin would hesitate to revisit, but Bail had begged him not to split the children up. That, and… the other thing. 

Breha and Bail both knew him so very well, better than anyone who wasn’t a Jedi, truly. Obi-Wan respected Bail as a war leader, and Breha as a political one. He had the utmost faith in them as people, because they were just… so _good_. They were so pure, so… kind, and loving, and at first he’d thought the emotion he felt for them was abstract, an appreciation of how they loved each and every person they met. 

They did. It was still true: they cared about _everyone_.

But they cared about him differently, and he’d been so, so afraid. He’d seen Anakin fall to the Dark from love, and the teachings of Master Yoda and the counterpoint of Qui-Gonn danced around in his head. Affection lead to clouded thinking, lead to loss of control.

But how could it be wrong to love two children, two he almost was an uncle to, twice over? Whose grubby faces and hands smeared love-messages on his robes, and who snored in his lap? 

How could it be wrong to love a man and a woman whose hearts were so pure they would take in the children of a now-monster, and raise them as their own? Who pushed for freedom and respect and truth no matter the risks? Who loved so openly and freely, so ready to give of themselves, or sacrifice for someone else?

Obi-Wan is… still a Jedi. And so it feels wrong to let them take him in like this, and yet… all he’s ever known is a community, albeit one where emotion was pushed down. He was hot-headed and impulsive, like his Master and his Padawan. He’s too much heart, and all three of them tried the Jedi way, and look where it got them.

Breha pads out quietly behind him, and he feels her warmth in the Force before her hand presses onto his shoulder. He puts his over hers, and smiles up. 

He can’t always manage to reciprocate as much as he thinks they would like, and often he’ll slink out of their bed wracked with guilt, but they don’t ever push him to stay, or to enter when he doesn’t feel he can. 

It’s so odd to him. He’s not supposed to love anyone at all, and he loves almost as much as Anakin had. These two - too good - who welcome him into their home, into their lives, into their hearts, and their bed. 

He knows he wouldn’t ever break them apart, their relationship is too strong for that. If anything, his jealousy over their relationship is the hardest burden. They’re legally wed, and he isn’t even legally alive. They love without guilt or fear, and he can’t always even accept they truly do want him here, or that he should _let them_. 

But they make space, both to come, and to go. They offer him nothing but love, love and a home. 

Obi-Wan wonders how Anakin would have fared if these two had adopted him, like they have done his children. He can’t help but think the galaxy would have been happier, safer… less Dark. 

And so he tries something new. The old ways didn’t work, which means you adapt, or you decay. He wants these children to survive, and not just to restore the Balance. He loves them, just as Anakin would. 

He won’t let hate colour them, or fear. Only positive emotions, only safety, only love.


End file.
